1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to connectors and in particular to a multiple connector assembly providing electrical and hydraulic services to a welding system.
2. General Background
In certain operation such as laying of pipeline on land or offshore, it is necessary that welding of new pipe sections to the pipeline, removal of flash from the fresh weld, and addition of any new pipe sections be accomplished in a continuous moving operation to assure that equipment and manpower are used in the most efficient manner possible. A time consuming step in this process is the addition of new pipe sections, especially in flash butt welding where the equipment used for welding and removal of flash on the inside of the pipe are positioned on the inside of the pipeline. This is time consuming as addition of a new pipe section cannot be done until all electrical and hydraulic power sources to the equipment positioned inside the pipeline have been disconnected. Once the new pipe section is in position, all power supplies must be reconnected. Disconnection and reconnection of these electrical and hydraulic lines has traditionally been accomplished by workers using hand tools to manually disconnect and reconnect each service line. This has been found to be inefficient since as many as eight separate connections may be involved. It can thus beeen seen that there exists a need for a more efficient method of disconnecting and connecting these lines so that the time required for adding a new pipe section and beginning welding of the new section to the pipeline is minimized.